How to Calculate Your GPA on a 4.0 Scale

Your Grade Point Average (GPA) is one of the most important numbers on your academic record — universities and scholarship committees use it to compare applicants at a glance. Here's exactly how it's calculated on the standard 4.0 scale.

Step 1: Convert each letter grade to grade points

Most 4.0-scale institutions use a mapping like A = 4.0, B = 3.0, C = 2.0, D = 1.0, F = 0.0, often with +/- variants in between.

Step 2: Multiply by credit hours

Multiply each course's grade points by its number of credit hours to get "quality points" for that course.

Step 3: Divide total quality points by total credit hours

• Add up all your quality points across every course.
• Add up all your credit hours across every course.
• Divide the first sum by the second — that's your GPA.

Use our GPA calculator to do this automatically for any semester or your full transcript.